Weeklong trip- Nicaragua and Northern Costa Rica

This past Saturday, I began a 6-day long trip with my program. It was SO MUCH FUN! There were about 15 kids from my program, and then around 25 more from USAC's Puntarenas program. We spent our first two days in Granada, Nicaragua, a beautiful colonial town. There was definitely a lot more poverty to be found in Nicaragua, more kids looking hungry and begging for food and money, more kids on the streets instead of in school. It's always rough to see that. Makes me realize how fortunate and lucky I really am. Speaking of being extremely fortunate, here's the beautiful hotel we stayed in, Hotel Alhambra:

Front hallway:

Lobby courtyard

La Piscina

After arriving and having a delicious delicious pizza lunch and a quick siesta, we went on a carriage tour through Granada. 

What once was a train station... Train from Pennsylvania, of course.

 Fort! To protect the town against Indian attacks.

So a little U.S.-Nicaragua history... these churches are black and looked burned because in the 1850s, a lovely Southern gentleman named William Walker came to Nicaragua essentially to further a "Manifest Destiny" in Latin America, and worked to take over the whole country, attempted to burn down some churches in the process, and eventually elected himself president. His government/reign was actually briefly recognized by the U.S. government. Granada was the capital at the time, so this is really where he began his conquest for power. He also tried to further his conquest to Costa Rica, but was luckily very unsuccessful.

Granada is located on El Lago de Nicaragua- the Lake of Nicaragua. Largest lake in Central America, 10th largest in the world. It's freshwater, but supposedly has some sharks in it! It used to have more, but we were all reassured that they had mostly been fished out...

This church, la Iglesia de San Francisco, is the oldest in Central America- built in 1529.

Diana and I at the door of the convent of La Iglesia de San Francisco:

The church is located on the highest ground in Granada, because it was one of the first things constructed. You can see the volcano in the distance. (4 craters, dormant) 

More Granada pics:

Central Park

A church right by Central Park- I love it. I think it's absolutely beautiful. I took a lot of pictures of it... I wish I could get married here. What do you think family? Wedding in Nicaragua?

On our second day, we got up nice and early for a boat ride through a series of isletas- little islands in El Lago de Nicaragua.  Many of these islands are owned by super rich people who have built beautiful houses there, and who have lots of beautiful boats as well. I felt like I was on House Hunters International- if only I could have gone inside to see the houses.

These were the boats we were on:

And we saw monkeys on one of the islands! This little guy was showing off for us:

After boating, we made our way to Volcán Masaya. It was awesome! More reminiscent of an actual volcano than Volcán Barva, which was just a lagoon. The only negative was the awful sulphuric stench...

 View from the top of the volcano!

There was a place where you could climb up to see more of the volcano:

Here I am ingesting sulphur overlooking the volcano!

All the volcanic rock towards the base of the volcano:

Really neat. Nature is awesome.

Then we went into the town of Masaya to go shopping and to have lunch. The market we went to was huge and filled with lots of souvenirs and stuff... I was not very successful in my shopping trip. The highlight was definitely lunch, where we were not only serenaded,

...but I also had the pleasure of consuming this meal. The plate it came on was sizzling, like fajitas would, and it was just really really good. The waiter recommended it, and I was not expecting shrimp on the steak and was very delightfully surprised.

On day #3, we headed 2 hours south to San Juan del Sur, a beautiful Pacific beach town not too far north from the Costa Rican border.

Our hotel:

My room:

The beach was nice, the town is located more or less on a bay-like area, so there's not huge waves, and the beach is almost a semicircle. Very cool.

We had some free time after lunch, so a group of us went to the beach to play some beach volleyball and go swimming! My favorite. After that, we went on a sunset boat tour, and got to see other areas nearby. 

In the background, check out the Jesus statue on the top of the mountain! And yes the water was really that blue! So beautiful.

View of the coast

We traveled out and away from the actual town to a different little beach, where we hung out for a little bit before getting back in the boats to go watch the sunset.

Back on land!

I had shrimp and lobster for dinner that night... Yum. The shrimp would have been better with Old Bay though! It's funny how you miss something so much more when you know there's no way you could possibly have it. After dinner we met up with some friends from our program who weren't on the group trip, but who were just staying in San Juan del Sur for a few days. We went and listened to some live music (I think the group was from Argentina!) and then went to bed, because of course we had to get up early to head to our next destination!

So the next morning we crossed back into Costa Rica and made our way to Rincón de la Vieja National Park in Guanacaste- which is just northwest Costa Rica. We stayed at an ecolodge called Buena Vista Lodge. It was basically in the middle of nowhere in the mountains. Very beautiful! We stayed in little cabin-like buildings. The biggest downside was the wind! It was super windy while we were there, and so it was very loud and noisy outside. It constantly sounded like there were things falling on the roof of the cabin!

View from my front door and of the front porch:

Pool:

That afternoon, we went on our first adventure: horseback riding to a mudbath and hot springs! 

Gearing up:

On the trail:

The process was first that we spent like 15-20 min in a sauna, then covered ourselves in volcanic mud, washed off, then got in the hot springs... the first (closest) pool was really hot, and the farther one was more lukewarm. Very relaxing!

Post- hot springs double rainbow!

I was very tired afterwards and so I went to bed early. The next morning, woke up for breakfast (all meals were buffet-style), they had lots of fruit, traditional Costa Rican breakfast foods, and pancakes! The next day I would be lucky enough to have one of my favorite breakfast foods- french toast! I was so happy. After breakfast, we had a little free time and then it was time for the water slide! It was basically this giant cement water slide through the woods, nothing too steep, but the water flows really fast and so you flew down the slide! We were also required to wear helmets...

...and the women were also required to wear diapers!! Made out of leather. Basically like bikini bottoms made out of leather... definitely a good thing so no one would lose their bottoms! In this picture you can also see the pool at the bottom of the slide where it ended: 

After lunch, I went on a hike with my friends Diana and Anna. We originally wanted to find hanging bridges, but managed to miss the sign and entrance, so we ended up walking around for a while until we realized that we were doing something wrong.... But we saw some cool trees and had a good hike!

Costa Rica really has the coolest trees that I've ever seen.

But we eventually made it to the bridges! 

Diana and I:

Anna on a bridge!

After the hike, it was time to go on a ziplining canopy tour... not as good as the first one we went on in January, but still fun! (How spoiled am I?!)

Alex, Kelsi and I looking really cool in our ziplining gear:

After ziplining and a little time by the pool, we made our way up to the Sunset Bar- the highest point on the property, with an excellent view to watch the sunset. Absolutely breathtaking. There were mountains in every direction, and you could see down into the valley below. Past the mountains you could see the ocean! 

Looking north:

In this picture you can almost make out the ocean past the far mountain range:

Post-sunset:

The next morning we packed up and left to head home. And so that concludes my week-long tour! I had an awesome time! I'm so lucky to have been able to have this experience.